Pursuit Shuts Down; Two Founders Join Facebook

The social job referral site Pursuit has shut down, with two of its co-founders accepting offers to work at Facebook. TechCrunch had reported the affair earlier today as a so-called “acqhire,” but upon closer inspection it’s more of just a regular hire.

Pursuit was bootstrapped and had not gotten much traction with its concept of shared referral bonuses.

Co-founders Louis Eisenberg and Russ Heddleston have both taken roles at Facebook that are unrelated to social jobs or what they had been doing at Pursuit, according to a source close to the deal. A third co-founder, Nicholas Letourneau, is returning to school. All three previously had technical roles at the real estate site Trulia.

Pursuit’s team had initially spoken with Facebook about a talent acquisition, but eventually agreed upon regular jobs, the source said. The difference is somewhat semantic, given the fact that Facebook abandons nearly all the products it acquires. But such a deal was possible because Pursuit had not taken any outside investment.

A spokesperson for Facebook commented via email, “This was a hire rather than an acquisition. We’re excited to have the team at Facebook.”

The company posted news of the change on its home page: “Update: we’ve found a new home at Facebook! Although we’ll be working on stuff unrelated to Pursuit, keep an eye out for great new features from us there and thanks to everyone who helped along the way.”

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